Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog

Student at School System That Just Settled Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Posts Racist Messages About Girl At Center of Case

If there were any doubt (and there shouldn't be to begin with) that 16-year-old Jayda Jackson — who was a student at Bellevue schools for three years before her and her family moved to attend Sandusky schools because of persistent racist and discriminatory treatment from her fellow students and school teachers at Bellevue — endured that kind of treatment and worse during those years, let the social media postings from a Bellevue student, captured and published by the Sandusky Register, be Exhibit A that she was telling the absolutely horrifying truth. They're littered with the n-word, the c-word, and racist jokes about her family being on welfare.

The background: the Jackson family's story was told by the Sandusky Register and Fox 8 in the past week. Please do read the full tale and recoil in disgust at the details Jackson relates. A small excerpt:

Just days into eighth grade, Jayda experienced anything but a warm welcome: A middle school principal singled her out at a school assembly, ordering her to put up her hair because it was a “distraction” to her classmates.

"I thought he was calling me down to introduce me as a new student," Jayda said. "He told me to go to the bathroom and tie it up. I was humiliated. It was my natural hair. What was wrong with it?"

Often, students hurled racial slurs with no consequences.

Among the phrases: “that’s why your grandpa picked cotton for my grandpa” and “take your black (expletive) back to Africa.”

"One kid called me the N-word almost every day, and the teacher just stood there and did nothing," Jayda said. "One day, he hit me with a pen, so I turned around and slapped his shoulder and told him to stop. I got suspended for three days. He just got Saturday school."

All that and more was included in a lawsuit filed by the family against Bellevue, which settled for $110,000, though the school system claims it was not an admission of guilt.

When contacted in early August, superintendent Kim Schubert told the Register the district chose to settle the case simply to save the cost of trial expenses.

"Our employees work hard each and every day to provide all of our students with a safe and caring learning environment," Schubert said. "This matter has been settled and we will not participate in continuing to argue the facts of this case in the media."